Cham Island Day Tour & Snorkling fra Hoi An med Grupperejse

If you’re looking at this tour for snorkelling then this isn’t the tour for you. The speed boat to the island was fun and the beach is pretty, but we as a family went for the snorkelling and this tour was not snorkelling like listed. If you’re looking for a few hours relaxing on a beach then this is for you. You can ask for snorkelling equipment but it’s just on the beach so all you’ll see is sand which is not ideal.

Our driver picked us up 15 minutes early and brought us oceanside to the tourist holding tank with hundreds of others waiting for their tours. We sat there for an hour and wondered what the day would bring? Then the tourists were all herded on a dozen boats which all headed for the islands at the same time. Fortunately, our first stop was at the beach where we would later have lunch. The beach was gorgeous and we were the only ones there. The sand was squeaky, the water clear, and the weather perfect. We enjoyed it for 45 minutes or so, then got back on the boat to go to the snorkeling location. We were excited to go snorkeling! We've done a lot but wanted to introduce our kids to it. We brought our own gear which was good as the supplied masks and snorkels were not all good quality. There were 1 or 2 other boats there, so the water was a bit crowded. The real disappointment was the lack of fish. We maybe saw a few dozen, and half a dozen plastic bags. We were in the water for 45 - 60 minutes and headed back for lunch. They have showers and large bathrooms at the lunch location as well as dozens of hammocks. The lunch itself was better than expected with way more food than our family of 6 could eat. In fact the food dishes covered the table so there was barely room for each of us to have a small bowl to eat out of. There was a monkey that came and stole someone's watermelon. And later, we saw tourists feeding the monkeys right beside the 'Do not feed the monkeys' sign. We had lots of time on the beach after lunch as a few other tourist boats pulled up and people went to different restaurants to eat. We enjoyed this time. Our last stop was in the main town of the Cham islands. There were things that we could go look at, but we just wandered the main strip, took photos, and sat in the shade to eat frozen treat bars. We appreciated the freedom to do this rather than be herded along to see other tourist sites. Our guides never left without everyone being present, even though it seemed that at each stop there was a tourist who wasn't paying attention and we all had to wait for them to get on the boat, sometimes for quite a while. So, all in all, it was a good family day for us. The snorkeling was disappointing but still fun for our family, and we liked exploring the beach and enjoyed the meal. The boat rides were fine, though the engine pollution was exhausting. Ha. Get it?

We were really looking forward to this as we are keen snorkellers and take every opportunity to check out the fish and coral wherever they may be. However the fish were few, the coral almost non-existent. The boat ride to the island was great and a walking tour on the island was interesting. It was a little hard to understand directions from the guy in charge of our group but he was a lovely fellow and very personable. We were then taken from the main port around to a beach where people could stay for swimming and the rest of us continued on to a cove with lots of rocks where we were to snorkel. There were no flippers provided and no buoyancy vests for the less confident swimmers, so some couldn't participate. We were allowed to swim off in any area and it did not appear that anyone was supervising us. There was only one other boat moored when we started, but when we looked around a little while after, there were quite a few, with lots of people in the water, all in vests. My husband was having trouble with his mask and wanted to return to the boat, but we couldn't tell which was ours - they all looked the same. The one he reached was not ours but he was tired and asked to come aboard. They finally let him. I then saw ours at some distance away - maybe we had moved too far with the current or maybe they had relocated, it was hard to tell. I tried to swim to it but soon also felt too tired to continue and so also approached another boat. If we had been given flippers this would not have happened. No-one from our boat appeared to notice our issues. Eventually the boats changed position so I could swim to the boat holding my husband, and they contacted our boat to come over and get us. We found out later that other snorkellers from our boat had returned to the wrong boats. This should not have been caused to happen. Signage on all the boats was along the sides, not at the stern which faced the snorkelling area. I knew our boat's name from the lifejackets we had worn on the way over from the mainland, but only finally recognised it by the appearance of one of the passengers standing in the stern. The best part of the day was the lunch provided at a restaurant when we returned to the main beach. The snorkelling was disappointing and the anxiety we felt with the boat fiasco marred the day. We have only snorkelled without flippers once before and that was in an area without strong currents. This company needs to provide them and take better care of its customers.

We didn't have ideal conditions, as there were rain showers all day, however it was still enjoyable. The speedboat trip is very bumpy which for us was fun but did make a woman in our group sea-sick. A tour is given of the main part of Cham Island, however it wasn't in English (it was Korean as 90% of our group was Korean) so we just walked along the shore for an hour. We then travelled by boat to a different part of the island which was much nicer as it had a beach and this is where everyone got changed to go snorkelling. There was also an option to scuba dive, but I wouldn't trust the safety of that in Vietnam. The 30 mins snorkelling was worth the cost alone, as the water was a great temperature and we saw a few exotic fish. We then had an OK lunch, and had time to swim at the forementioned beach before heading home. Despite some disorganisation and the lack of English, we would recommend.

This was a wonderful day. We went for snorkeling, had an amazing lunch, and time to relax and swim afterwards. The crew was organized, on time and the equipment was in good condition. However, the government should control the number of visitors who visit Cham island, there were very crowded there but we understand.

Pickup from hotel on time, short drive to CUA Dai port. Massive crowds doing same thing,race to island! Some fish,good coral! Lunch was great!

We did a full day trip to Cham island with the SON. Ms Quynh, our tour guide was really nice. Me and my boyfriend enjoyed the snorkeling and sunbathing